New Testament · Letter

1 Corinthians 3

Spiritual Infants

You're still drinking milk when you should be eating solid food. The Corinthians are divided over leaders, but the church belongs to God alone.

Berean Standard Bible BSB KJV

1Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ.

2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready,

3for you are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and dissension among you, are you not worldly? Are you not walking in the way of man?

4For when one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men?

5What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.

6I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

8He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.

9For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds.

11For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,

13his workmanship will be evident, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will prove the quality of each man’s work.

14If what he has built survives, he will receive a reward.

15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as if through the flames.

16Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

17If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

18Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.

19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”

20And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

21Therefore, stop boasting in men. All things are yours,

22whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. All of them belong to you,

23and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Understand This

1 Corinthians 3, explained

What 1 Corinthians 3 is saying

Paul diagnoses the Corinthians as sarkinoi (fleshly), still spiritual infants requiring milk rather than solid food, as evidenced by their jealousy and factionalism. He redefines apostolic ministry through agricultural and architectural metaphors—Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gives the growth. The chapter warns that each builder's work will be tested by fire on the eschatological day.

The background behind it

The planting-watering metaphor draws on familiar agricultural imagery in both Jewish Scripture and Greco-Roman philosophy. The temple imagery reflects both the Jerusalem temple tradition and the Roman architectural context of Corinth's impressive public buildings.

Themes running underneath

Ministerial accountability before God relativizes human leadership claims. The temple metaphor—'you are God's temple'—is corporate, not individual, emphasizing the community's sacred identity. The fire-testing motif introduces eschatological judgment of ministry quality.

Why it still matters

Leaders and communities alike must reckon with the reality that all ministry will face divine evaluation. The question is not who gets credit but whether the work endures.

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Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.